


First Mate

by sunalso



Series: Hidden Treasure [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff, Mermaid and pirate au, alternative universe, mermaid Jemma Simmons, pirate Leo Fitz, tropical island
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 18:29:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17472731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunalso/pseuds/sunalso
Summary: AU. Fitz is a pirate. When he’s left guarding loot on a tropical island, the last thing he expected was to fall in love with a mermaid.Beta'd by Gort





	First Mate

_A/N: This is part of three work series, SunAlso writing the FS, and Gort writing the HB part. They need to be read in order to make sense: First Mate, Sunk, Overboard. And yes, there's mermaid sex._

 

****

It was a perfectly nice island.

Fitz stood by a palm tree, looking at the peaceful lagoon that protected the beach he was on. He had everything he needed: food, shelter, books, and the cargo of the Barbarella to watch while his Captain went to play nice with the English.

It was Spanish silks and rare spices, plunder from a galleon that his ship had pirated, all neatly wrapped in oilcloth that would keep out the worst of storms.

Fitz was first mate on the Barbarella, and Hunter had trusted nobody but him to remain with the trade goods for the several weeks that the ship needed to play nice and legal. Or it might have been that Fitz’s Scottish accent would've riled up the English officers.

Either way, he had at least a fortnight of doing nothing but relaxing and reading.

There was a clear and deep stream that ran to the ocean not far from where his tent was pitched. It even had a bit of a pond so he could bathe amid the riot of tropical flowers that lined the banks. Their scent was heady, and he’d already gathered some for his tent.

Barring any squalls, he was set up nicely.

He went to sleep that night to the sound of the waves and dreamed of someone singing with an impossibly beautiful voice.

****

_Three Days Later_

Fitz sat on a flat rock beside the pool in the shade of a bush, reading a gothic novel that he’d never let the crew catch him with, and eating a piece of cherimoya that he’d removed the seeds from and stuck on the end of his knife. His feet were dangling in the water to keep him cool, and overhead, tropic birds were flitting amongst the branches. Several more slices of the fruit were on a piece of cloth beside him, ready to go.

He was just getting to the good part, where the beautiful princess runs off with the kind-hearted peasant, when there was a splash from the pool. Fitz looked up, watching ripples spread across the pond. That was odd. There weren’t any fish, at least not that he’d seen.

Uneasy, Fitz pulled his feet out of the water.

There was another splash, and this time he was sure it was a fish. A big one.

It’d be better eating than jerky.

He pulled the fruit off his knife and gripped the handle, getting his legs under him.

There was another swish, and then he was looking at a pair of amber eyes that were just above the water.

He ended up back on his arse, the knife clattering to the rock.

It was a woman.

Her long brown hair swirled around her head as she watched him.

“Hello,” he said, waving at her.

The head disappeared, and a second later a tail broke the surface, resplendent with gleaming golden scales, then slid under the water.

Oh shite, a mermaid. Of course.

The head reappeared, and she rose further out of the water, her hair clinging to her shoulders and thankfully covering her bosom.

“Hello,” she said and raised a hand to return his wave.

Fitz grinned, and wondered if he’d been out in the sun too long or eaten something off because the mermaid looked like she’d stepped…er, swum…out of one of his fantasies. The kind he had when he was alone in his bunk at night.

She swam closer, and Fitz sat back down like he had been, feet in the water, not wanting to scare her.

“What were you doing?” she asked.

“Eating lunch.”

She wrinkled her nose and pointed to the book beside him. “With that. You were staring at it.”

“I was reading.”

The mermaid looked very excited. “It’s a book, correct? That can tell you ideas or stories from far off places?”

“Yes, um, right.”

“That’s what I thought.” She moved even closer. “My name’s Jemma. I promise I don’t want to hurt you.” He could see a tawny nipple peeking out from between the strands of her hair, and his mind went a bit blank.

“Uh, same. I mean…the hurting—wait—not hurting part. My name’s not Jemma…that’s you. Uh. I-I-I’m Fitz. Leo Fitz.”

“I’m sorry if I scared you.”

“It’s alright. I just…wasn’t expecting you.”

She smiled shyly. “Why are you here? On this island?”

“I’ve got some cargo that couldn’t be on the ship for a while. I’m watching over it for a week or two.”

Jemma moved until she was right next to him. “I see.” She gazed up at his face, then at the book. “You’re a pirate.”

“Well…yes.”

Her shoulder lifted and fell in a shrug. “But you can read?”

“Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.”

She bit her lip. “Could you teach me?”

“To read?”

“No, to be a pirate.” She rolled her eyes. “Of course to read.”

Fitz studied her, looking for any trick or hidden meaning. “Why do you want to be able to read? I can’t imagine there are many manuscripts beneath the waves.”

She looked down, tracing a finger over a crack in the rock. “I like to know things, but you’re right, of course. Water ruins parchment and paper. I’ll be very careful not to get your book wet.”

The day seemed much warmer than it had before, with Jemma right there. And he understood her innate drive to learn. If he’d been born a nob he’d have spent forever in school and had a library stuffed full of books he could read at his leisure, but he hadn’t, and been sent off to work the docks before being conscripted onto a trading vessel at fifteen. He’d run as soon as he could and ended up falling in with Hunter, which had been a turn of luck, even if Fitz was rather different than most of the men he crewed with.

“I’ll teach you,” he said hoarsely.

“Thank you!” Her smile brightened her whole face, and Fitz found himself wishing he could kiss her.

“But the book I was reading is mostly rubbish, let me get something much better to start with. I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll be here.”

Fitz ran to his tent, dropped the novel, and rooted through his crate of books. It wasn’t like he had a primer. Finding one that had fairytales, he hurried back, only to nearly fall over his own feet.

Jemma had pulled herself from the water, except for the ends of her tail that were dangling into it. She was gorgeous, her golden scales reflecting sunlight and her skin soft and creamy. Her fins were almost the same color as her skin, and it was a very enchanting effect.

He sat beside her. “I found a book of children’s tales. It might be a good place to start. Not that I think you’re a child.” Jemma nodded and he opened it to the first story, that of Little Red Riding Hood. “There are 26 letters in the alphabet, and they are put together to make words.” Jemma nodded. “Tomorrow I’ll bring something to write with and show you, perhaps for now I can read, and run my finger under the words?”

“That sounds excellent.”

He held the book where they both could see it and started reading. “Once upon a time…”

After several paragraphs, Jemma put a hand on his arm, making him stutter. “Don’t forget your lunch.”

“Oh, my hands are somewhat occupied—”

Jemma reached over and grabbed a piece of the fruit and held it to his lips. “Eat.”

Fitz hesitated, then opened his mouth and carefully took a bite. He continued to read, then paused for another bite, this time having to suck the fruit from her finger.

Jemma made a faint noise as he did so, then stuck her finger in her mouth. “Oh, it’s sweet.”

He set the book down and picked up another piece, holding it out towards her. “Do you want to try?”

She leaned forward and carefully took the bite of cherimoya from his fingers, her lips closing around his forefinger to get the juice.

Fitz’s stomach lurched, and he had to immediately return to reading to douse the fire that was running through his veins.

“Thank you,” Jemma said with a smile, and Fitz was sure he’d never seen anything so beautiful in his life.

****

_A Week Later_

Jemma knew she was pressing her luck, staying with Fitz, the other mermaids were used to her being somewhat odd, but to be spending this much time with a human man would be frowned upon. Greatly.

Only Fitz was so interesting, and in the seven days she’d spent with him, she’d mastered quite a lot of reading, graduating from fairytales, which had been strange and required a lot of explanation—Jemma had been horrified to learn that wolves were like sharks but on land—and was now reading a novel about a man that kept getting shipwrecked and had a terrible attitude towards people who didn’t look like him.

Fitz kept apologizing and saying he wasn’t like the man in the book, and she very much hoped not because she liked Fitz quite a bit.

Alright, she was enthralled with him. He was handsome, his hair curled nicely and she was fond of his beard, which she would like to touch. There was also hair on his chest, including a line down his belly that made her wonder if there was more under his trousers.

There were no males of her kind, not that she knew of, which made her even more curious about Fitz. How did humans pleasure each other without the proper fins to brush together? Her ventral fins had opened multiple times when she’d been close to him, but he hadn’t seemed to notice. Which was too bad.

Perhaps humans had a way of pleasuring each other that involved other body parts? Did knees have something to do with it? Jemma was planning to ask Fitz but had been putting it off and touching his knee a lot just in case.

He had noticed her gills, brushing his fingers in wonder over them when she’d stretched her neck, and they’d briefly opened. That had been one of the times her ventral fins had reached for him, leaving her with no doubt that she found him attractive.

Kissing him might clue him in, though according to the stories he’d read her, kissing seemed to be reserved for very specific things, like waking a princess up. She didn’t want to break a taboo if humans only kissed someone briefly to arouse them from slumber.

It was all very confusing.

Jemma looked up when she heard footsteps from where she was leaning her top half on the flat rock by the pool.

Fitz appeared, grinning when he saw her. Part of Jemma hated that he had to leave at night, going to sleep in his tent while she slept curled up under the water in the pool. It just reminded her that they were so different from one another.

Fitz sat beside her, his mere presence making her feel more buoyant. She put a hand on his knee.

“Good morning, Fitz.”

“Morning, Jemma. Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, but I missed you.”

Fitz smiled shyly. “I missed you too.”

“The nights are too long.” She pulled her hair back, baring her chest. She’d noticed that seemed to attract his attention. His gaze fell to her breasts, and she cupped one, playing with it.

Fitz sucked in a breath and moved his knee away from her, pulling it towards himself. “How about we do a little reading? Do you want to start?”

Jemma nearly gave in, but Fitz’s face was flushed, and his eyes kept darting back down to her breast and hand. She did not particularly want to read. With a flip of her tail, she rose higher out of the water, leaning towards Fitz until her lips were hovering next to his. She took his hand and placed it on her breast. “Do humans kiss?”

“Merph?” Fitz said, his hand caressing her.

“Do humans kiss? I would like to kiss you.” Her fingers returned to resting against his knee.

Fitz closed the gap between their mouths and pressed his lips to hers. Her caudle fins brushed together, and she undulated, pressing her chest towards Fitz’s hand and deepening the kiss. Their lips moved over each other, and their tongues touched hesitantly.

Jemma’s hand slid higher on Fitz’s thigh, and abruptly he broke the kiss and pushed back from her.

“Jemma!”

She wanted to cry at the censor in his voice, and her gaze drifted down from his face, pausing on the front of his trousers, which did not look the same. There was definitely something straining against the fabric. Perhaps the human version of her ventral fins?

Eagerly, she reached towards the laces holding his trousers in place, but Fitz only squeaked and scuttled back further.

“What are you doing?” he asked, voice high.

“Fitz!” She was very tired of him being so ignorant. “Do you not like me at all? Am I hideous to you because I’m not like you? Are all humans like the man in your book?”

“Not like you!” He sat back up. “I like…you’re all I can think about. You’re some kind of ethereal goddess and who am I to imagine touching you?”

Jemma scoffed. “I’m just me. And I really want you to touch me. I keep thinking you’ll notice how much I would like to share pleasure with you, but you don’t.” Her tail twitched, splashing water. “Do humans even have the ability? Do you derive physical pleasure from each other?”

Fitz nodded. “Yes.”

“How? You don’t have the right fins. Is what I can see in your trousers a part of that?”

Fitz’s face was bright red. “Y-yes. I’m male. I have a c-c-cock. It gets bigger when I’m aroused.”

“Let me see.”

“Jemma—”

“Oh, ink on whatever politeness you’re worried about. I’m not a princess in one of your stories.”

Fitz’s face softened. “You’re much better than any of them. And…and I’d like to share pleasure with you too. And you’re right, about the politeness. Where I come from it’s not something you do with a woman before you’ve…committed yourself to her.”

“We’re not where you come from.”

“We’re absolutely not.” He reached out and ran his fingers over her face. “But I can still commit to my satisfaction. I can say I love you.”

Love she understood. Her heart beat faster. “Yes, Fitz! I love you. I wasn’t sure—” She broke off and surged towards him again, kissing him once more. His arms went around her, and she was glad she hadn’t said she wasn’t sure humans were capable of love. Fitz certainly seemed confident, and she felt cherished.

The kiss was soft and sweet, but she wanted a great deal more. Flipping her tail, she lifted herself from the water, and Fitz directed her to lie on the rock beside him, and he stretched out as well.

“You’re so warm,” she said, her lips against his as her heart spun like a porpoise.

“Your hands are freezing.” He grabbed them between his, blowing on them and making her laugh.

Jemma pulled one free and twisted the end of one of the laces of his trousers around her finger. “Should I stop?”

“Never.”

 She pulled the laces loose, eager to find out what his male-part looked like. Fitz pushed his trousers off, and Jemma immediately scrambled down his body to look. There was indeed more hair. It was above his male organ, which reminded her a little of the mast of a ship, and she wondered if cocks were what they were modeled after. “What do you do with it?” she asked.

“A human woman has a corresponding place between her legs that it goes into. Though that’s, um,  theory for me, right now.” Jemma flicked her tail. She’d rip apart any human woman that thought to touch him. She ran a finger along his length. It felt very hard under his soft skin, and Fitz moaned. “What about you?”

She moved so she was face-to-face with him again and took his hand.

“These fins.” She directed his fingers to her ventral fins, which were below her waist. “They sit tight against my body unless I am, how did you say it, aroused? Then the outer ones move and the inner ones—" she furled them around his hand and gasped “—are exposed.”

“I’ve seen them like this before.”

“I thought you didn’t want me because you ignored them. It only occurred to me today you might not know what my body was saying.”

His fingers flexed and stroked her, making her moan. “I’m sorry, Jemma,” he said. “I had no idea. Tell me what to do.”

Jemma looked between their bodies, were her fins were encasing his hand, and his cock was standing hard and rigid, poking out from his body. She couldn’t see why it wouldn’t work. Her fins flexed reflexively when she dragged his hand away from them and returned it to her breast, but she forced them to unfurl. Putting a hand on his rear, she urged him closer to her, until she could wrap her fins around his cock.

“Be gentle,” he panted.

“I will.” She fluttered them, stroking his cock. He felt good against her, though it wasn’t like a second set of fins twining with her own. “What do you need me to do?”

“I don’t really know.” Fitz was trembling. “I want to thrust. Let me show you how humans move.”

She relaxed her hold slightly, and Fitz rolled his hip, moving them forward and back. His cock slid against her, and that felt much better. She wrapped her fins around his cock from base to tip, fluttering them as he moved. The feeling of his hardness throbbing and rubbing against her was exquisite. She put a hand over his on her breast, encouraging him to be rougher.

Her body was tightening, reaching for her peak, and she grabbed Fitz’s rear, both to enjoy the feel off his muscles there and to encourage him to move faster.

Fitz grunted, then bowled her over onto her back, his hands beside her shoulders and his knees on either side of her tail. The position let him brace himself and move with more determination.

“Oh,” she whispered, putting a hand on his face and kissing him. “Oh my…my…Fitz!” Her tail curled with the pleasure as it washed through her like a tidal wave. Fitz was grunting and straining, and she kept her fins around his cock. He was thrusting wildly, then slammed his hips forward with a loud groan and his cock pulsed in her grasp, leaking something onto her.

She let go of him, and Fitz rolled onto his back beside her.

Pushing herself up, Jemma looked at where there were white streaks of fluid on her belly, both scales and skin. She ran a hand through it and brought it to her mouth.

“Wait, Jemma—” Fitz’s eyes were wide as he reached for her.

The taste of the fluid was salty and complex, though it did carry a hint of something similar to Fitz’s scent, but it was the saltiness the caught her attention. “It’s like you carry some of the ocean in you, and you gave it to me.” She was delighted, scooping up another streak and licking it off her fingers.

Fitz had a weird look on his face. “I…that’s…humans do that, men, when we climax. It’s how we get a woman with child.”

“Don’t think we have to worry about that.”

“Suppose not.”

“I like my idea better.”

He smiled and laughed, which was one of her favorite sounds.

Jemma returned to the pool, and to her delight, Fitz followed her. She swam around him, and he splashed her, so she whipped her tail and doused him. Grabbing her, he pulled her close and kissed her.

When they were both tired, Fitz laid himself on the rock, using his trousers as a pillow and dozed with his hand over the edge, his fingers intertwined with her while she napped just beneath the surface.

For the rest of the afternoon they continued with her reading lessons, but when supper time came, which was usually when they separated, Jemma found she couldn’t stand not seeing him all night. She offered to bring him fish to share, and he said he’d cut fruit for her. It didn’t take her too long in the island’s lagoon to catch several suitable meal-sized fish.

Upon returning, she was shocked to see a small fire going, and Fitz’s bedroll set out close to the edge of the water. He wanted to stay close to her as well.

She handed him a fish, and he placed slices of fruit on a tin plate for her.

“What are you doing?” she asked, puzzled as he removed the fish’s insides and stuck in on a stick. Her own dinner was halfway done.

“I have to cook mine.”

Leaning her forearms on the stone, she watched in fascination as Fitz prepared himself dinner. How odd to prefer flesh that had been heated up instead of fresh from the sea.

After dinner, as the sun set, Fitz slipped back into the pool with her.

“I can’t imagine being happier than I am at this moment,” he said, kissing her.

“Me either. Though what will happen when your captain returns?”

“I don’t know. I might have to leave you, briefly, to sail to a port and to find a place we can share.”

“How can we share?” Her heart was breaking, thinking of him being anywhere but with her.

Fitz held her tight, his hand stroking her hair. “There are houses I’ve seen built over the water. I’ll find us one. And I’ll fill it with books to read and…I just want to spend every moment I am given with you.”

“My sisters will not be happy with me. What we’re doing is forbidden.”

“I don’t think Hunter’s going to be thrilled with me either.”

Jemma curled her arms around him. “Promise me, Fitz, that we’ll always find each other.”

“Always.” He kissed her hard, and his hands trailed over her skin, everywhere he touched lighting up like a phosphorescent tide.

Her fins unfurled, and she found his body wanting her as well. Her tail curled around him and making love in the water proved even better than it had on the land. She peaked twice in rapid succession, writhing with pleasure.

He gave her the ocean again, crying out her name as he pulsed through his bliss.

Jemma held him tight. It didn’t matter how different they were, in all the vastness of the sea, she had found her home.

***

_Another Week Later_

Fitz expected the Barbarella to be back any day, though he had long since quit keeping watch in favor of spending time with Jemma. She’d swam with him in the ocean, showing him the best parts of the lagoon and reef, as well as the secrets of its inhabitants.

They’d made love on the beach, in the pool, on the rocks beside it, and in the ocean.

She loved all the questions he had, and he loved hers. He’d given up the tent and set his bedroll beside the pool, so they could talk while the stars marched across the sky. He told her of his home, and she described hers.

That morning the wind was kicking up a little, but Jemma said she didn’t think there was a storm coming, and he trusted that she would know better than him. Currently, she was sitting on the flat rock beside the pool, her tail in the water. The cream-colored fins at the end were swaying as she gently wiggled them in enjoyment of the way Fitz was combing out her hair.

The comb was cleverly crafted from a single shell, and Fitz had asked a great deal about how it was made, curious to how different life was below the waves. He had his legs on either side of her and was alternating between detangling her long hair and kissing her nape and shoulders. Jemma was singing softly, a sweet melody that made him think of love and laughter.

“Fitz?” a voice said loudly from behind them.

Jemma yelped and slid into the pool, her tail flicking as she backed away from—

Oh, shite. It was the Barbarella’s quartermaster, Trip. “Hello,” Fitz said.

“Tell me that is not a mermaid!” Trip said, rubbing at his forehead.

Fitz glanced at Jemma, who was still on the far side of the pool with only her eyes above the water, and kept silent.

Trip looked heavenward and sighed. “Really?”

Fitz knew he had to go, but it felt far too soon. He fought tears as he stood. “Please don’t tell the captain.”


End file.
